Indian police personnel baton charge a protester during a demonstration against the controversial citizenship law in Varanasi. PHOTO: AFP/File
In an 82-page report, entitled ‘Shoot the Traitors’: Discrimination Against Muslims Under India’s New Citizenship Policy’, the HRW says that the act, together with a planned nationwide verification process to identify “illegal migrants”, can threaten the citizenship rights of millions of Indian Muslims.
It says the police and other officials have repeatedly failed to intervene when government supporters attacked those protesting the new citizenship policies. The police, however, have been quick to arrest critics of the policy and disperse their peaceful demonstrations, including by using lethal force.
“India’s prime minister (Narendra Modi) has appealed for a united fight against COVID-19, but has yet to call for unity in the fight against anti-Muslim violence and discrimination,” Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement issued on Thursday.
“Government policies have opened the door for mob violence and police inaction that have instilled fear among Muslims and other minority communities throughout the country,” she added.
The HRW, which is based in New York, said the report is based on more than 100 interviews with victims of abuse and their families from Delhi and the states of Assam and Uttar Pradesh, as well as with legal experts, academics, activists, and police officials.
The new amended citizenship law fast-tracks asylum claims of irregular immigrants from the neighbouring Muslim majority countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, but excludes Muslims.
It was enacted amid the BJP government’s push for a nationwide citizenship verification process, through a National Population Register (NPR) and a National Register of Citizens (NRC), aimed at screening out “illegal migrants”.
India's citizenship law 'fundamentally discriminatory' against Muslims: UN
While work on the population register has been deferred to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the HRW said the statements from the Indian home minister Amit Shah and other BJP leaders had raised fears that millions of Indian Muslims, including many whose families have lived in the country for generations, could be stripped of their citizenship rights and disenfranchised.
The HRW pointed out that BJP officials had mocked and threatened protesters, while some of their supporters engaged in mob attacks on critics and anti-government protesters. It also highlighted the fact that some BJP leaders called for the protesters, whom they described as “traitors,” to be shot.
At least 30 people, mostly Muslims, were killed during protests in BJP-governed states, particularly in Uttar Pradesh. During other protests, including by students, the police failed to intervene when government supporters attacked protesters.
In February this year in Delhi, the HRW recalled, the communal clashes and Hindu mob attacks on Muslims resulted in more than 50 deaths, adding that witness accounts and video evidence showed police complicity in the violence.
Women, who are more likely than men to lack access to documentation, were disproportionately affected, the rights group said. The Foreigners Tribunals, which decide citizenship in Assam, lacked transparency and uniform procedures.
“The Citizenship Amendment Act violates India’s international obligations to prevent deprivation of citizenship on the basis of race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin, the HRW said. “The Indian government should repeal the amendment and ensure that any future national asylum and refugee policy does not discriminate on any grounds … and complies with international legal standards.”
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